


He's got my heart beat, skipping down sixteenth avenue.

by Smileydubs15



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Behavioral Analysis Unit (Criminal Minds), F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, One Night Stands, Pining, Spencer Reid in love, co worker crush, friends falling in love, too stubborn to acknowledge feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-22 04:15:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30032913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smileydubs15/pseuds/Smileydubs15
Summary: Imagine your surprised when on your first day in the BAU you come face to face with the cute guy you'd had a one night stand with weeks earlier. You agree to be friends, but life has other ideas.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader, Spencer Reid/You
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	1. I saw you walk in the room and I tried my best not to panic while I'm looking for the back door

“We should invite her to have lunch with us.” Garcia said, sliding up beside Spencer in the FBI lunch room.

“Maybe she likes to sit alone.” Spencer snuck a glance over at you, sitting alone at a table eating a carrot while reading a book. He could feel the blush already creeping up his cheeks. 

When you’d walked into the bullpen earlier that morning with Hotch Spencer had been so shocked that he dropped his coffee cup, shattering it everywhere. When the sound of the shattering had drawn all the eyes to Spencer, yours were the only ones he was looking at, and they had the same look of surprise as his.

This hadn't been the first time the two of you had locked eyes across a room, only this time he could say with absolute certainty that the night wouldn't end up with you in his bed grasping his sheets with sounds of your soft sighs filling his head while he tasted your skin. 

“Nobody wants to sit alone, especially on their first day. Come on. I want to know every thing about her.” Garcia charged forward, leaving Spencer planted in place while she confidently spoke to you, all while pulling up a chair. She looked back at Spencer and waved him over.

You cleared your throat and brushed back some hair as Spencer joined the table, clearly as uncomfortable as he was. 

“Dr. Reid.”

“Agent Y/L/N.

“What's with the formality?” Garcia asked as she unpacked her lunch, clearly oblivious to any tension at the table. “You know, if I’d known it was your first day today I would have made you cookies, or cupcakes… Do you like cookies or cupcakes? Who am I kidding, of course you probably like cookies and cupcakes.” Garcia rambled happily, gladly filling the silence when neither you nor Spencer spoke. Spencer caught your eye a few times, but both of you looked away quickly. “So. I need to know. Siblings? Only child? What's your deal?”

You opened your mouth and slightly tilted your head, almost as if the question surprised you, “Youngest of three.”

“Interesting. Favourite movie?”

“Umm, Sound of Music, I guess?”

“Very interesting. Reid, any questions.” Garcia turned to him, and for the first time all day you looked at him and help his gaze.

“What are you reading?”  
“Red Notice.”

“Boring question, my turn again. I notice no ring, are you seeing anyone, because if not, I could introduce you to like four different guys who are super cute, or gals, if thats your thing.”

“ I'm not really looking right now.” You said, your words echoing the ones you’d told him the morning after your night together. 

“You and me both sister.” Garcia laughed. 

“If you ladies will excuse me, I actually have some paper work I need to get to Hotch.” Spencer said, collecting his uneaten lunch. His chest felt tight, like he was having a panic attack and he needed to get out of here. Now.

“Dr. Ried, would you be able to stop by my office at some point this afternoon, I’d love to get your opinion on a few cases.” You asked before Spencer had a chance to walk away.

“Yes. Of course.” He gave both you and Garcia a tight smile followed by a wave, and he rushed back to his desk and let the nervous feeling he’d had in his stomach all day get more and more stressed as he mentally prepared to stop by your office.

****

It was just your luck that the cute guy you'd gone home with last weekend and had meaningless sex with your new coworker. 

When you’d seen him across the bullpen you thought your heart would jump out of your chest it had pounded so hard. “Oh shit.” You’d softly muttered to yourself. This was definitely going to make this awkward. The last time you'd seen him, you hadn't made the best impression.

You had noticed him immediately that first night. Tall and lanky with a mop of wild curls, and a kind smile. You also noticed how smart he was. Your team always won trivia night, but that night his team sure gave you a run for your money, beating you by only two points. He’d been up at the bar top alone, paying his bill when you’d gone over to say hello. The clumsy way he introduced himself endeared him to you instantly, and after a few short minutes you were smitten. He had seemed a little hesitant at first about bringing you home with him. After you’d suggested going at it in the bar bathroom he’d agreed that his place would probably be more comfortable.

You had felt a little bad in the morning. He was sweet, shy almost when he’d asked if you wanted to get breakfast with him.

A very small part of you begged you to say yes, to give the sweet guy with warm eyes a chance, but the bigger part reminded you that you weren't ready. When you'd told him you didn't do breakfast he’d immediately offered you his number and instead offered a dinner later that day.

You let him down easy and he seemed understanding, but with those big brown eyes he reminded you of a kicked puppy. With a swift goodbye you’d left his place and had tried to get him out of your head, and had almost succeeded.

After lunch anytime anyone knocked on your door you almost jumped out of your skin, expecting it to be him, dreading the conversation you needed to have as the day drew closer and closer to an end. 

Your first day was almost over when he finally knocked, standing tentatively in the doorway. 

“Hi, come in, please.” You stood, your heart pounding hard in your chest. 

He shut the door behind him and sat if the chair across from you, “I am safe in assuming that you don't really want my opinion on a case?”

“I just wanted to clear the air between us, since we’ll be working together.”

“Okay.”

“First off, I'm sorry. I was rude that morning. It was very nice of you to invite me to breakfast, it's just that I recently got out of a pretty serious relationship, so I just, I don't think I'm ready for anything.” You fumbled awkward, finally looking up to meet his eyes. What you saw surprised you. 

“I understand.” He smiled, nodding gently. 

“You do?” You said, a little relieved. You had been imagining this conversation all afternoon, different scenarios playing out, most of them not ending well, but the look of understanding in his eyes seemed sincere. 

“In theory, yes. You know, the hormones released during sex help alleviate stress and you understandably would be stressed with the new job, and if you don't have a partner,I think it makes sense that you would look else where to get that release.”

“Yeah. Right.” You bit back a smile. You had of course heard about the brilliant Dr. Reid before today, and his tendency to share facts that no one had asked for. “Which kind of brings me to my next point. I’d prefer if we could maybe pretend that we didn't, you know?”

“Didn't have sex?”

“Yeah.” Your cheeks warmed, “I'm not saying we need to be friends or anything, but maybe we just…” You trailed off, not sure how to word what you wanted to say.

“Maybe we keep it to ourselves?” He offered. 

“Exactly.” You sighed. “I just wouldn't want the first impression everyone has of me to be that I sleep around or something.”

“I promise I won't say anything to anyone.”

“Thank you, Dr. Reid, and maybe we could just start over?”

Spencer smiled at you across the deck. “I’d like that.”

“Good. Well. I look forward to working with you Dr. Reid.” You stood and held out you hand to him.

“Same with you, Agent Y/L/N. See you tomorrow.”

“See you.” He left your office, smiling at you again before he left. Once you were alone you sank back into your chair.

You glanced over at the pile of files on your desk and sighed softly as you grabbed a stack to go through. Despite yourself you looked out your office window out to the bullpen where Spencer was talking to Derek and Emily, laughing about something, and you caught yourself smiling. You gave your head a quick shake and got back to the files in front of you.

One thing you were absolutely sure about, if you weren't careful, Spencer Reid could be a distraction.


	2. I wanna be the one that makes your day, the one you think about while you lie awake

You watched while Spencer studied the map in front him, trying to figure out the best place for the two of you to carry on with your canvassing to make the biggest impact. He was more focussed then he usually was, you both knew the statistics well. The longer the child was missing, the less likely it was that she’d be found alive. 

You looked over his shoulder at the map, his scribblings indecipherable to you, even after working with him for almost six months. 

“How could no one have seen anything?” He said, more to himself then to you. 

“It's a safe neighbour, everyone watches out for each other.” You leaned against the car, and closed your arms while you looked out at the empty street. It was quiet, and despite the beautiful day, there weren't any children outside, the disappearance of seven year old Hattie Martin terrifying this small community.

“That's what I can't understand. You’d think that a strange car would be noticed, right? Everyone know each other, an outsider would stick out.”

“Garcia did background checks on everyone, nothing stood out.”

“I know. It's just, she was four houses away from home, went to get a doll but never came back. It should have taken her under five minutes. What happened between point A and point B?” 

“Why don't we just go see if anyone in those house saw anything.” You suggested. “I know they've already been interviewed, but maybe they remembered something?” The others were out following various leads and conducting interviews at houses farther down the the street and on neighbouring streets, leaving you and Spencer outside the Martin house. 

The entire time you had worked at the BAU it seemed that you were often working with Spencer. So much of what you did was done from where ever the team had set up a base, and Spencer worked mostly with files and maps, so it wasn't abnormal for him to bounce ideas off you, or even ask your opinion on something. 

“That's a good idea, we should-“

“Let Hotch know? Im already on it.” You said, not looking up from your phone as you typed out a message to Hotch, letting him know what you and Spencer were doing.

The first two houses had nothing new to offer and you were starting to get disheartened as you checked the time. It was coming up on twelve hours since Hattie had gone missing and it was starting to get dark.

“I can do this one alone if you want.” Spencer said as he knocked on the door,stepping back and looking over at you.

“I’m fine Spence. I just want to find her.” The door opened, and you showed your credentials to the couple standing in the doorway. “Hi, Mr and Mrs Goodmen?” They nodded. “I'm agent Y/L/N and this is Dr. Ried, we’re with the FBI, we were hoping we could ask you some questions?”

“We already gave our statement to those other officers.” Mrs. Goodmen said. 

“We were just wanting to go through your day with you again, maybe there's something you forgot the first time, or something that didn't seem important.” Spencer explained.

“Please, come in. Anything to find Hattie.” Mr Goodmen moved to let the past him into the house. 

They showed the two of you to the couch and Mrs Goodmen offered you coffees, which you politely refused. Spencer started to ask them about their day, their usual routine, and anything the might have found odd when you noticed that the four of you weren't alone anymore. 

You cleared your throat and softly touched Spencer's leg, nodding your head towards the top of the stairs where the Goodmen’s young daughter was sitting, listening to your conversation. 

“Oh Jane, the adults are talking honey. Why don't you go play in your room?” Mrs. Goodmen said.

“But mommy. I want to play with you.”

“Mommy’s talking to the agents right now sweetheart.”

“But mommy.” Jane stomped her foot.

“I could play with you, until Dr. Reid’s finished here?” You stood, looking to Spencer, who nodded. “If that's alright Jane?”

“Ok, I guess.” She shrugged, and you followed her up to her bedroom. 

“Wow. I like your bedroom.” You sat on the edge of Jane’s bed while she sat and started to play with her toys. “Pinks my favourite colour too.”

“Are you going to find Hattie?” She asked, not looking up from her toys.

“There's a lot of people looking for her, and we’re going to do everything we can to try to find her.” Jane never looked up from her dolls, and just kept playing. “Were you and Hattie friends?” You asked.

“No. She's a crybaby and she doesn't share good.”

Something struck you about the tone in Jane’s voice. “What do you mean?” You got off the bed and sat across from her, your eyes falling on her hands. 

“She never wants to share her dolls.”

There was a soft knock and Spencer poked his head in the room.

“Y/N?” He said.

You smiled at Jane, “I’ll be right back.” You went joined Spencer out in the hall.

“What is it?” He asked.

“I think we need to call social services, and maybe a child psychologist.” You said softly, peaking back in to the room.

“Did she say something?”

“Sort of. I know I'm not a profiler, but I don't know Spence, I have a feeling.”

“Agent Y/L/N? Dr. Reid?” Mrs. Goodmen came up the stairs.

“Mrs. Goodmen. The doll Jane’s playing with, did you buy that for her?” You asked.

She looked in the room, a puzzled look on her face. “No, I don't think I’ve seen that before.”

“Spence. It looks an awful lot like the doll Hattie went to get. And, she has defensive wounds on her hands.”

Mrs. Goodmen gasped, “Defensive wounds? You think who ever took Hattie hurt Jane too?”

“The wounds are on the back of her hands.”

“What does that mean.”

Spencer cleared his throat, “If someone's being choked typically in an effort to protect themselves they claw at the hands of the person choking them.” He explained.

You looked back into the bedroom, where Jane was playing with Hattie’s doll while Mrs Goodmen started to cry.

*****

Spencer looked across the jet to where you were sitting alone, looking out the window. You had your legs pulled up on the seat, and were resting your chin on your knees. 

“Alright if I sit here?” He asked, setting a mug of tea in front of you.

“Of course.” You smiled while he slid into the seat across from you with his own mug. Everyone else was asleep and the jet was calm in the way it only was after a successful case.

“You did really good work today. A little girl is home with her family tonight because of you.”

You were looking at the mug, playing with the sting on the tea bag. “And another little girl’s in a psych lock up.”

“That's not on you.”

After you’d noticed the defensive wounds on Jane's hands the team had quickly jumped into action. As the reality set in for Jane that she was caught, she told the team where she had taken Hattie, crying and begging to to not be taken away from her mother, but chillingly, the tears had stopped the second she was separated from her parents, and she seemingly had no remorse for what she’d done. The team had watched the social service officer interview Jane and the way she had described what she’d done had been one of the scariest things Spencer had ever seen in his time with the FBI. 

“I know.” You sighed, looking up finally, a sad look on your face.

“Have you ever considered taking the profiling classes? I think you’re got some good instincts.” Spencer pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and started to shuffle them.

“That's very nice of you to say, but I like my role.” 

“JJ said used to say them same thing when she was the media liaison, now she's a profiler.”

You scrunched your nose as you collected your cards. “I don't think I’ll be catching the profiler bug any time soon.”

The two of you played a few rounds of war, one of the only two card games you’d play with Spencer, and chatted about nothing in particular, the whole time your phone buzzed softly next to you almost at a constant pace.

“Do you need to get that?” He asked finally.

“Nope.” You reached over and took the cards you won, then looked expectantly at Spencer, waiting for him to play his next card, but he looked at you, head tilted with a puzzled look. “It's my sister.”

“Is everything alright?” He played his next card, a win for him.

“Peachy.”

“Oh?” More cards played, another win for him.

“My cousin’s getting married next weekend, and Annie’s the matron of honour, and she's helping Katie with who know what, and she noticed that my Ex RSVP’d yes, and is bringing his new girlfriend with him, who happens to be the girl he was cheating on me with.” You slapped your next card down a little more forcefully. 

Spencer couldn't quite tell what the expression on your face was. “Yikes.”

“Yikes indeed. Annie’s been texting me all night, trying to set me up with different guys to bring as my plus one so Peter doesn't think I’m alone, not that I care at all what he thinks. Does it make me a bad person that I'm kind of hoping we end up getting a case?”

“Why would your ex be invited to your cousins wedding?”

“He’s friends with my cousin’s fiancée. That's how we met.” Spencer noticed the uncomfortable look that you often got when your ex was brought up, and wondered what it was about this man that made such a noticeable shift in the way you held yourself.

“I’ll go with you.” He found himself offering, surprising himself. 

“Spence…” You started.

“I go to weddings with Garcia all the time, well, not all the time but whenever Morgan isn't available, I'm her back up.” He suspected your hesitation came from your initial meeting. You'd made it very clear to Spencer when you’d met months ago that you had no interest in a romantic relationship with him, and in those months the two of you had become close friends. 

“I can't ask you to give up a Saturday to come to a wedding for people you don't know.”

“You didn't ask, I offered. That’s what friends do, right?”

“You really want to come?”

“It could be fun.”

You bit the inside of your cheek then grabbed your phone quickly typing something. it immediately buzzed again and you smiled.

“What?” Spencer asked.

“Annie wants to know if you're cute.”

“I mean, I’d like to think so.” He replied while you held your phone up and snapped a picture of him.

Your phone buzzed again, “Well, congratulations Spencer, you're on the list.”

“More importantly, does she think I’m cute?”

You laughed and leaned over to ruffled Spencer’s hair, “Very much so. I think I’m going to try to get some sleep, you probably should too, its been a long day.”

“Yeah, I will.” 

You gave him one more smile before nestling into your chair and closing your eyes. He knew he was staring, but he couldn’t help it, much like how he couldn’t stop the way his heart skipped a beat when you smiled at him. He gave his head a shake, and tried to get those thoughts out of his head, but that, much like him trying to convince himself he didn’t have a tiny crush on you, was proving much harder then he thought it would.


End file.
